Prince Malchezaar
Prince Malchezaar is a raid boss located at the very top of Karazhan. Background Little is known about him except that he is a Man'ari Eredar and a member of the Burning Legion. It is unknown what his purpose is, how, or when he arrived. Due to his location at the top of Karazhan, he is considered by many to be the tower's final boss. However, some used to consider the creature Nightbane to be the true final boss of Karazhan, due to his superior difficulty in the early days of the dungeon's release. Their comparative difficulty is now disputed. Prince Malchezaar can be encountered after the Chess event. Attacks and abilities *'Has about' 1.1 million health points (Mobinfo 2 data) *'Summon Infernal' (All phases) - Malchezaar summons an Infernal which, about three seconds after landing, starts continuously casting a Hellfire AoE roughly the size of the one Baron Geddon uses. Each Infernal lives for about 180 secs, and there is no limit for how many of them can be up at the same time. There are typically four Infernals up at a time until the end of Phase Two (see below), after which they will start increasing rapidly. These Infernals are stationary, and must be avoided by the raid. They cannot be targeted or attacked. The cooldown on this ability is 45 seconds during Phases One and Two, and 15 seconds during Phase Three. Malchezaar exclaims one of two emotes to announce an Infernal: "You face not Malchezaar alone, but the legions I command!" or "All realities, all dimensions are open to me!". *'Enfeeble' (Phases One and Two) - Periodically casts Enfeeble on five characters chosen at random (excluding his primary target), which reduces their maximum health to a single hit point for about seven seconds. While this effect is active, any damage causes instant death. Healing effects do nothing, but the lost health returns after this undispellable effect ends. Enfeeble is followed by a Shadow Nova, so enfeebled characters must stay 30+ yards away from Malchezaar, and watch out for Infernals. After the Enfeeble has faded, players return to their previous health. Vampiric effects such as Siphon Life ignore Enfeeble. This does not hit pets. *'Shadow Nova' (All phases) - Malchezaar's Shadow Nova has a three-second cast, a range of 25-28 yards, deals about 3000 shadow damage, and includes a knock-back. This attack can be outranged by healers and ranged damage-dealers, so even if they are enfeebled it does not cause much concern. Enfeebled melee must get out of range; however as long as they start running right away they have plenty of time to avoid the Shadow Nova. This attack can be resisted. During Phases One and Two, Malchezzar casts this roughly four seconds after Enfeeble. During Phase Three, he casts it without preliminaries. *'Shadow Word: Pain' (Phases One and Three) - Cast periodically on his primary target for Phase One, and on a random target for Phase Three. Can be dispelled. Cannot be reflected. Causes 1500 damage per tick. *'Thrash' (Phase Two) - Gains two rapid-fire additional attacks against current target. Malchezaar uses this ability unpredictably, with a few seconds to up to a few dozen seconds between each use. *'Parry' (Phase Two) - Avoids a frontal melee attack as the character ability. This is notable because Parry speeds up the next attack by 40%, and is dangerous in combination with Thrash. *'Flying Axes' (Phase Three) - Malchezaar unleashes his axes on random targets as a separate but untargetable attacking entity. They deal physical damage and appear to have Demonic Frenzy as they start out hitting each new target for only about 400 on cloth, while ramping up to 2000 a hit. General tips *If you dispel Shadow Word: Pain fast enough, a Mage can cast Amplify Magic on the MT to make healing easier. *Healers can stand at max range for heals on the MT and be out of range of the Shadow Nova, thus able to continue healing during Enfeeble. *Malchezaar cannot use Enfeeble on the highest target on his aggro list. However, since aggro is not pulled until 110% of the MTs aggro for melee and 130% for ranged, it is possible for someone to be higher than the MT without pulling aggro, and thus cause the MT to be a target of Enfeeble. *The range of the Hellfires from the Infernals is not nearly as big as it seems graphically, which means that there is some leeway to where you can move and avoid damage. * If you have a ranged person that is very familiar with this fight and the safe places to stand, mark him/her with a raid icon and instruct the ranged raid members to stay on top of the raid icon during the fight. This saves a lot of time explaining positioning and is very effective if the person marked is good. *Having your tank using an Elixir of Detect Demon makes it a lot easier for them to keep track of where the infernals have landed, and not get trapped. Also, it's useful for Hunters and Warlocks to be tracking demons. * Melee DPS try to keep an eye on infernal position and have an escape route for when you get hit by Enfeeble. * It is possible to have all ranged stand huddled together between the wall and the pillar at the right of the doorway, avoiding shadow nova and most infernals, while melee tanks Malchezaar at maximum range. * Another option is to have a well-geared feral druid tank Malchezaar, starting in the center of the platform. A druid in dire bear form can feral charge out of each Shadow Nova that isn't resisted, allowing complete freedom of tanking position in order to better avoid the Infernals. If you use this method, the tank may need additional healing during phase 2 to mitigate crushing blows. * When Prince Malzhezaar resets after a wipe he will completely despawn and then respawn in around 30 seconds. Tanking Safe Spot Currently there is a safe spot for tanking Prince. This safe spot essentially means that healers and range dps do not need to move at all during the fight, ensuring that Prince is downed first time, every time. The tanking spot and healing/dps spots never have infernals land on them. The strategy involves pulling Prince to the far wall away from the entrance. To be more precise; * Exit the entrance and follow the wall on the left and go all the way to the far wall. * The group then moves forward to a small outcropping and holds there. * The tank must hold Prince in a spot that is within reach of the Healers and ranged DPS. It is preferable to have as much ranged dps as possible as any melee classes will need to run further away from the Healers when they have the debuff on themselves. However it isn't impossible, just a little harder. Tanking Safe Spot: http://flavaguild.com/images/karasafe.jpg or http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/bmkibler/princeposition.jpg Strategy Prince Malchezaar has 3 phases: Phase 1 *Tank Malchezaar in a corner somewhere with the tank's back to the wall to avoid knockback. *DPS him steadily down to 60%, being mindful of Enfeeble, Shadow Nova, and the Infernal AoE. *One strategy is to use white damage only for the first phase, except for hunters and classes with aggro wipes. This allows the tank to gain plenty of aggro to counter the high raid DPS of phase 2 and 3, meaning the tank will never get enfeebled. *If you start to get cornered by Infernals, have your tank move to another part of the platform. Try to do this before Phase 2. TIP: Trolls can use berserking when hit by enfeeble to get a free haste bonus. Priests avoid using Shadow Word: Death while enfeebled. Also, for Retribution Paladins (currently Horde only), avoid using Seal of Blood while fighting Malchezaar. Seal/Judgement of Blood's self-damage aspect will kill you if you are enfeebled, and can even kill you as you are running away (supposing you use a Judgement). Phase 2 *At 60% health, Prince Malchezaar will warp in axes, which substantially increases his melee damage. *Depending on your tank, a badly timed Thrash can take out more than 12k hp within a second. Healers need to keep the tank topped off, and at least one healer should constantly have a large heal ready to keep your tank above 12k at all times. As he has weapons, he also gains the ability to parry incoming attacks from the front. A Thrash followed by a parry can lead to over 20,000 damage done in under 2 seconds. *If you have trouble with tank deaths during this phase, overhealing is advisable. *Applies Sunder Armor (stackable) to the main aggro target. *Melee Cleave. *Stops casting Shadow Word: Pain. *Continues to Enfeeble and Shadow Nova. *'DPS him as quickly as possible' down to 30%, being mindful of Enfeeble, Shadow Nova, and the Infernal AoE. ** You can watch the Infernals fall from the sky and have a good idea of where they are going to land. This will allow you to move to a safe spot before they hit the ground in the middle of your raid. Phase 3 *Phase three begins when Prince Malchezaar reaches 30% health *Melee damage on the tank returns to normal. *Prince Malchezaar throws away his axes and they fly around attacking a raid member. *Stops using Enfeeble however he continues to Shadow Nova without warning other than his 3 second cast-time. *Resumes casting Shadow Word: Pain *No longer sunders, parries, or cleaves. *Make sure the person being attacked by the axes communicates to the raid chat or on Ventrilo or Teamspeak so they can be healed. The damage they do is easy to heal through, but if ignored may cause the death of your healers or DPS. The axes do physical damage and as such can be mitigated with armor. A Paladin's devotion aura is advised at this part. *The Infernals will start to spawn much more frequently and Malchezaar must be killed as soon as possible. Raid movement and communication is paramount during this phase to avoid taking damage from the Infernals. Each infernal will land on a 20 second timer -- you literally have <2 minutes before there will likely be too many Infernals up, and you wipe. Burn him down fast. *Prince Malchezaar will random cast amplify magic on raid members, this will greatly increase damage they take. It is a short duration debuff which is non dispellable. *A badly placed infernal during this phase can easily wipe the raid. If this happens, don't be discouraged, since you managed to get him through the most difficult part of the fight (phase 2). Infernal spotting Malchezaar emotes either "You face not Malchezaar alone, but the legions I command!" or "All realities, all dimensions are open to me!" immediately before summoning an infernal. If you look to the sky beyond the balcony, you'll see a bright yellow meteor headed toward the raid. Its trajectory is a little tricky but somewhat predictable. One responsible non-melee raider should act as a spotter. He receives a raid marker and has three jobs: *Watch for falling infernals and move to a safe spot. *If an infernal will fall on the melee group, announce it in clear terms and suggest a new location (e.g. "infernal on far side of door from melee group, move along the wall from the door", or maybe a minimap ping). *Stay within range of the melee group so the healers can do their jobs. The other ranged raiders stick close to the spotter. It's possible to skip the raid marker and announce safe spots, but using the marker requires a lot less communication. As for the infernals themselves: before landing, they fly in a straight line toward a point in the arena, but shift direction suddenly at the last second, usually down. Naturally, your spotter should be smart about choosing a safe spot. A wide open place is better than sandwiched between two infernals' AoE, and the area of the Prince's Shadow Nova is right out. During Phase 3, Malchezaar summons infernals at an increased rate, so watch those emotes. Loot Quotes Gaining Aggro: * "Madness has brought you here to me. I shall be your undoing!" Summoning an Infernal: * "You face not Malchezaar alone, but the legions I command!" * "All realities, all dimensions are open to me!" Phase 2: * "Simple fools! Time is the fire in which you'll burn!" Phase 3: * "How can you withstand such power?" Player death: * "You are, but a plaything, unfit even to amuse." * "Your greed, your foolishness has brought you to this end." * "Surely you did not think you could win." Malchezaar dies: * "I refuse to concede defeat. I am a prince of the Eredar! I am..." External links Malchezaar, Prince Malchezaar, Prince Malchezaar, Prince